Mickey Z

Cool Observer

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Saturday, February 03, 2007

What I heard on the W Train

(Another Storytelling Saturday arrives)

Once upon a time...

I’m standing on the crowded Lexington Avenue subway platform, waiting for either the N or W Train to take me off the island of Manhattan. A drone-like female voice booms over the loudspeaker: “Ladies and Gentlemen, pan-handling is against the law. Please do not give to law-breakers. Please give instead to charities that support those in need. Thank you.”

I look around to check for reactions but I get nothing. Poker faces. One might be excused for thinking the people on the platform did not even hear the announcement (those wearing iPod earphones surely haven’t). We are being asked—check that—we’re being told to not only view desperate humans as law-breakers but also to ignore them. No one flinches.

Let’s rewind back to, say, 1973. If some sci-fi flick injected that exact pre-recorded spiel into a futuristic subway scene, we’d all have chuckled at the representation of such a callous—and highly unlikely—future.

Finish reading W Train story here